Thursday, March 31, 2011

A 26-year-old woman was charged Thursday with two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts for allegedly making email threats against Wisconsin lawmakers during the height of the battle over Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill.

Katherine R. Windels of Cross Plains was named in a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Criminal Court.

According to the criminal complaint, Windels allegedly sent an email threat to State Sen. Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) March 9. Later that evening, she allegedly sent another email to 15 Republican legislators, including Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau).

The subject line of the second email was: "Atten: Death Threat!!!! Bomb!!!" In that email, she purportedly wrote, "Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your families will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks."

"I hope you have a good time in hell," she allegedly wrote in the lengthy email in which she purportedly listed scenarios in which the legislators and their families would die, including bombings and by "putting a nice little bullet in your head."

...Windels was charged with two felony counts "bomb scare" and two misdemeanor counts of "computer message-threatening injury/bodily harm." If convicted, each felony count carries a maximum penalty of three years and six months in prison and a $10,000 fine, and each misdemeanor count carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Want to take a guess as to which Democrat front group and/or public sector union she reports into?

Richard M. Stana, director of homeland security and justice issues at the Government Accountability Office (which is responsible for “auditing agency operations to determine whether federal funds are being spent efficiently and effectively”), told the Senate Homeland Security Committee yesterday that the federal government can actually prevent or stop illegal entries into the United States along only 129 miles of the 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border.

That leaves 1,825 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border where the Border Patrol cannot prevent or stop an illegal entry.

These news stories go hand-in-hand with those exposing "Project Gunrunner", the biggest White House scandal in modern history, yet one that has been curiously underplayed by legacy media. Only excellent original reporting by CBS News has broken through the censorship of state-run media.

"Project Gunrunner" was a bizarre ATF project -- run by the likes of Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder -- that allowed weapons to flow to the Mexican drug cartels. Straw buyers for the cartels purchased nearly 600 AK-47s from Arizona gun shops, over the objections of the owners.

Sources tell CBS News several gun shops wanted to stop the questionable sales, but ATF encouraged them to continue...

Jaime Avila was one of the suspicious buyers. ATF put him in its suspect database in January of 2010. For the next year, ATF watched as Avila and other suspects bought huge quantities of weapons supposedly for "personal use." They included 575 AK-47 type semi-automatic rifles.

ATF managers allegedly made a controversial decision: allow most of the weapons on the streets. The idea, they said, was to gather intelligence and see where the guns ended up. Insiders say it's a dangerous tactic called letting the guns, "walk."

One agent called the strategy "insane." Another said: "We were fully aware the guns would probably be moved across the border to drug cartels where they could be used to kill."

On the phone, one Project Gunrunner source (who didn't want to be identified) told us just how many guns flooded the black market under ATF's watchful eye. "The numbers are over 2,500 on that case by the way. That's how many guns were sold - including some 50-calibers they let walk."

50-caliber weapons are fearsome. For months, ATF agents followed 50-caliber Barrett rifles and other guns believed headed for the Mexican border, but were ordered to let them go. One distraught agent was often overheard on ATF radios begging and pleading to be allowed to intercept transports. The answer: "Negative. Stand down."

CBS News has been told at least 11 ATF agents and senior managers voiced fierce opposition to the strategy. "It got ugly..." said one. There was "screaming and yelling" says another. A third warned: "this is crazy, somebody is gonna to get killed."

Republicans on the House Administration Committee want to shore up voter registration rules in the wake of a Colorado study that found as many as 5,000 non-citizens in the state took part in last year’s election.

...Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, a Republican, told the panel that his department’s study identified nearly 12,000 people who were not citizens but were still registered to vote in Colorado.

Of those non-citizen registered voters, nearly 5,000 took part in the 2010 general election in which Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet narrowly defeated Republican John Buck...

Spokesmen for ACORN, La Raza, MEChA and the SEIU could not be reached for comment at press time.

Via Salon Magazine, The New York Times reports that the Obama administration is prepared to attack its ostensible allies -- Libyan rebels -- if they start whacking "civilians".

..."We’ve been conveying a message to the rebels that we will be compelled to defend civilians, whether pro-Qaddafi or pro-opposition,” said a senior Obama administration official. “We are working very hard behind the scenes with the rebels so we don’t confront a situation where we face a decision to strike the rebels to defend civilians.”

The warnings, and intense consultations within the NATO-led coalition over its rules for attacking anyone who endangers innocent civilians, come at a time when the civil war in Libya is becoming ever more chaotic, and the battle lines ever less distinct. They raise a fundamental question that the military is now grappling with: Who in Libya is a civilian?

Well, that question appears to have been answered by the unquestioned military genius -- the Lioness of the Senate -- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). She would like to... wait for it... arrest Gaddafi.

Air strikes haven’t forced Moammar Gaddafi to flee Libya, she told Andrea Mitchell at MSNBC yesterday, but you know what would work? A warrant for his arrest, courtesy of the International Criminal Court. All we need to do is to, er, “go in and arrest him”.

And this is what passes for "thought leadership" in the modern Democrat Party.

Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows.

If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means ‘no’ to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members.”

What’ll they do if people boycott ‘em back — by not paying taxes?" --Glenn Reynolds

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Freshman House GOP members will send a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday ratcheting up the pressure to pass a continuing resolution for the remainder of the fiscal year that “makes reasonable, responsible spending cuts”— and promise to protest daily until he does.

"Mr. Reid, your record on spending in the Senate is one of failure," says the letter, written by Arkansas Rep. Rick Crawford, a former radio broadcaster. "You have failed to pass a budget, failed to restrain spending, and failed to put our country on sound fiscal footing. We do not accept your failure as our own. The American people did not send us here to fail."

...In trying to flip the conventional narrative of government shutdown politics, the freshmen are engaging in their first publicly organized effort to use the strength of their numbers as a class.

We the undersigned call on you and the Senate to pass a long-term Continuing Resolution; a resolution that hears the calls of the American people and makes reasonable, responsible spending cuts.

Mr. Reid, your record on spending in the Senate is one of failure. You have failed to pass a budget, failed to restrain spending, and failed to put our country on sound fiscal footing.

We do not accept your failure as our own.

The American people did not send us here to fail. Make no mistake: any government shutdown is the result of your lack of leadership. America has a $14 trillion debt and you offered a mere $6 billion in cuts. The House heard the calls of the American people and offered $61 billion in cuts, but the Senate has not sent us a Continuing Resolution in return.

We have received nothing from the Senate except denials of the dire straits of our nation’s fiscal health.

The House of Representatives is accomplishing what we were elected to do. We’ve cut spending. We’ve terminated wasteful programs. We’ve funded the government.

Mr. Reid, we are letting you know that we will rally on the Senate steps every day until you pass a long-term Continuing Resolution. We call on all Americans to join our fight in restoring our country’s fiscal health.

The House of Representatives is doing our job, Mr. Reid. The Senate needs to start doing theirs.

Mr. Reid, it’s time to pass a bill.

Bound together and determined,

[Signatures]

I like that:

"Bound together and determined."

It sounds like we may have some statesmen in the House after all.

How hard is it to explain, Speaker Boehner?

The last Congress, for the first time in modern history, failed to pass a budget. Any government shutdown is on their heads.

There is certainly a lot going on abroad, but let’s not get so distracted we forget there’s a desperate need for regime change here at home. Here’s a promising bit of news that should buoy America’s democracy-loving "rebels."

But let’s not take anything for granted. Keep punching until the bell rings on November 6, 2012. Obama is going to spend $1,000,000,000 (one billion!) to put us into another trance-like state. And that figure doesn’t include the free pass he gets from the White House-run legacy media.

Gee. Those numbers certainly come as a surprise. We now interrupt this presidential vacation for another crisis.

A surge in demand for tablet devices such as Apple’s iPad is expected to help boost overall IT spending this year and offset any negative impact on the supply chain from this month’s devastating earthquake in Japan...

...New figures from Gartner, the research firm, predicted that global spending on IT would rise 5.6 per cent to $3,600bn in 2011. The forecast, which was revised up from an initial forecast of a 5.1 per cent increase, includes spending on computing hardware by consumers and companies, as well as enterprise software, IT services and telecom equipment.

As virtually the entire consumer electronics industry throws its weight behind tablet computers, Microsoft's global chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie said today that he did not know whether the booming new category was here to stay.

Speaking at a lunch held in Sydney by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), Mundie, who reports directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, said he did not know whether tablets like the iPad would "remain with us or not".

I feel like we're reliving history all over again, only this time the part of DEC's Ken Olsen is played by Microsoft's Steve Ballmer.

So, March is coming to a close & it was time for GM's cars to stand on their own. Edmunds predicted Ford sales will be higher than GM's. According to the Detroit Free Press: "Ford hasn't outsold GM regularly since the heyday of the Model T."

If the Edmund's prediction are on target, GM lost to Ford as soon as they stopped artificially juking their numbers with massive incentives.

In other, other words: the GM vehicle lineup does not look like it can stand on its own and it is likely we will see them ramp up incentives again.

Or just have the biggest and most powerful corporation on Earth -- the Democrat-controlled federal bureaucracy and unofficial fourth branch of government -- start juicing sales... starting with the troubled Volt.

President Barack Obama this afternoon outlined his new energy plan, vowing the government will lead by example in an attempt to reduce foreign oil imports by one-third over the next decade... he said that by 2015 the federal government will purchase only "alternative-fuel" vehicles, including hybrids and electrics...

"We’re going to have to find ways to boost our efficiency so that we use less oil. We’ve got to discover and produce cleaner, renewable sources of energy that also produce less carbon pollution that is threatening our climate. And we have to do it quickly."

Actually, it will be the taxpayers, not Obama, forced to lead by example as the out-of-control bureaucracy sinks more of our childrens' borrowed money down the global warming rat-hole.

And to think, the people who yell the loudest about saving the Constitution, i.e., conservatives and the Tea Party, are completely AWOL when it comes to Obama’s blatant power grab and end-run around Congress.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Anyone have a mathematical formula handy? I would like to calculate the number of Obama voters who have defected -- and will defect -- as each enormous Democrat boondoggle fails. You know: "Stimulus" programs, HAMP, HEMP, Cash-for-Clunkers, Obamacare, "Financial Reform", 10% unemployment, 20% underemployment, the government takeovers of GM and Chrysler, "Quantitative Easing", a new war, and $5.2 trillion in new Obama debt.

While everyone knows that the CPI in the US is manipulated beyond repair (a topic far too broad to be discussed here suffice to say that as disclosed previously true inflation in the US is currently runrating at over 8%), inflation as actually represented by US consumers... is near all time highs... So if one takes this data series and adds to it the narrow unemployment definition (U3) one would get an adjusted Misery Index for US citizens (using inflation expectations instead of manipulated CPI).

...As the chart below shows, the Misery Index, which is merely inflation plus unemployment, constructed as such, would now be at an all time high.

...[This is hardly] in keeping with Bernanke's wealth effect prerogative, but surely in line with record food stamp usage reported month after month... And the other good news is that we have the Brits beat again: whereas the US is at a record, the UK is merely at a 20 year high, proving once again that only the US never does anything half-assed.

"We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization... we must make use of everything we have at hand to strike at this front by means of our suicide operations or by means of our missiles." -- Hassan Abbasi, "strategic adviser" to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

"We are in the process of an historical war between the World of Arrogance [the West] and the Islamic world, and this war has been going on for hundreds of years... Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? ...you had best know that this... goal [is] attainable." -- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

"We have established a department that will take care of England. England's demise is on our agenda." -- Hassan Abbasi

I was informed by my contacts in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that the Basij had started work on a film that had the approval of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The purpose of the project: to inform Muslims across the globe of the immediate coming of the last Islamic messiah. As my English translation of the film makes clear (watch it exclusively at PJTV), the Iranian leaders, now more than ever, feel that all the stars are aligned for such event.

Ever since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Islamic rulers of Iran have declared themselves representatives of God on Earth, believing their mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the Shiites’ 12th imam, Mahdi.

Who is Mahdi?

According to 'Twelver' Shi'a Mulims, Imam Hujjat al-Mahdī ( المهدى) is the 12th Imam and the Mahdi, the ultimate savior of mankind. Twelver Shi'as believe that Muhammad was born in 868 and has been hidden by God (referred to as occultation) to later emerge to fulfill his mission.

Twelver Shi'as cite various references from the Qur'an and reports (Hadith) from Muhammad and the twelve Shi'a Imams. These texts predict the reappearance of Muhammad al-Mahdi which would, in accordance with God's command, bring justice and peace to the world by establishing Islam throughout the world.

Shi'as believe that Muhammad al-Mahdi will reappear when the world has fallen into chaos and civil war emerges between the human race for no reason. At this time, it is believed, half of the true believers will ride from Yemen carrying white flags to Mecca, while the other half will ride from Karbala, in Iraq, carrying black flags to Mecca. At this time, Muhammad al-Mahdi will come wielding God's Sword, the Blade of Evil's Bane, Zulfiqar (Arabic: ذو الفقار, ðū l-fiqār), the Double-Bladed Sword.

As mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is reported to have constructed a boulevard to prepare for the Mahdi. A year later, as Iran's president, he budgeted $17 million for a blue-tiled mosque in Jamkaran that is directly tied to the Mahdi's return.

The expansion [of the city of Qom] is driven by an apocalyptic vision: that Shiite Islam's long-hidden 12th Imam, or Mahdi, will soon emerge -- possibly at the mosque of Jamkaran -- to inaugurate the end of the world. The man who provided $20 million to prepare the shrine for that moment, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has reportedly told his cabinet that he expects the Mahdi to arrive within the next two years.

In a speech several years ago, Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated, "Our revolution's main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi."

Anton La Guardia, writing in London's Daily Telegraph: "Iran's president actually relishes a clash with the West in the conviction that it would rekindle the spirit of the Islamic revolution and [possibly] speed up the arrival of the Hidden Imam."

As God promised, the oppressors will have their noses rubbed in the dirt. Now they are fulfilling this promise by themselves... Let it be known that in whatever we do, I see the hand of God and the hidden imam at every moment.

Princeton professor Bernard Lewis observes, "There is a radical difference between the Islamic Republic of Iran and other governments with nuclear weapons. This difference is expressed in what can only be described as the apocalyptic worldview of Iran’s present rulers."

On the holy topic of suicide bombing (martyrdom), Ahmadinejad recently asked: "Is there art that is more beautiful, more divine, and more eternal than the art of martyrdom? A nation with martyrdom knows no captivity."

Iran doesn’t fear retaliation if they attack Israel or the United States because a final global struggle against an evil enemy will present them with the privileges of martyrdom as taught in Islam, Lewis wrote. Death is not a deterrent, it is a reward.

The most dangerous leaders in history are those like Hitler, Hirohito and Ahmadinejad, fueled by a totalitarian ideology and a mystical belief system. Ahmadinejad accepts that the return of the 12th Imam is imminent. Furthermore, he is certain of his own duty to hasten the Mahdi's return. This explains the many years of hidden preparation as Iran built its nuclear weapons, which are designed to both mete out punishment to the non-believers and pave the way for the apocalypse.

Given the willful incompetence of the UN and the IAEA, Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons has continued unchecked.

Currently this movie is being distributed throughout the Basij and Revolutionary Guards’ bases. The producers are in the middle of translating it into Arabic, with the purpose of mass distribution throughout the Middle East. Their intention is to incite further uprisings, with the hopes of motivating Arabs to overthrow U.S.-backed governments.

'Reza Kahlili' describes the goal as follows: "The annihilation of Israel and Allah’s governance of the world."

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. [joined] a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning without realizing the reporters were already listening in. Schumer thought he was on a private line with four Democratic senators who were to talk with reporters about the current budget stalemate.

Schumer instructed the group, made up of Sens. Barbara Boxer of California, Tom Carper of Delaware, Ben Cardin of Maryland and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, to tell reporters that the GOP is refusing to negotiate... He told the group to make sure they label the GOP spending cuts as "extreme."

"I always use extreme, Schumer said. "That is what the caucus instructed me to use."

..."The main thrust is basically that we want to negotiate and we want to come up with a compromise but the Tea Party is pulling Boehner too far over to the right and so far over that there is no more fruitful negotiations," Schumer said on the call. "The only way we can avoid a shutdown is for Boehner to come up with a reasonable compromise and not just listen to what the Tea Party wants. "

...Someone must have finally told Schumer that the media were listening and he stopped talking midsentence.

The key point is less about the message coordination and more about Schumer scheming to shut the government down, and preparing a rehearsed justification for it, claiming it's the other guys who won't negotiate.

QOTD: "Media Matters is not merely a non-profit organization. Its activities are encouraged by the mainstream media, it works closely with Democratic donors like George Soros, and it operates on behalf of and with Democrats in and out of government. So, when David Brock talks about systematically digging up information on employees of a news operation, no doubt for the purpose of intimidation, character assassination, and ultimately censorship, his techniques are Stalinist-like and worthy of broad condemnation." --Mark Levin

...In the face of the world’s condemnation, Qaddafi chose to escalate his attacks, launching a military campaign against the Libyan people. Innocent people were targeted for killing. Hospitals and ambulances were attacked. Journalists were arrested, sexually assaulted, and killed. Supplies of food and fuel were choked off. Water for hundreds of thousands of people in Misurata was shut off. Cities and towns were shelled, mosques were destroyed, and apartment buildings reduced to rubble. Military jets and helicopter gunships were unleashed upon people who had no means to defend themselves against assaults from the air...

...America has an important strategic interest in preventing Qaddafi from overrunning those who oppose him. A massacre would have driven thousands of additional refugees across Libya’s borders, putting enormous strains on the peaceful –- yet fragile -– transitions in Egypt and Tunisia. The democratic impulses that are dawning across the region would be eclipsed by the darkest form of dictatorship, as repressive leaders concluded that violence is the best strategy to cling to power...

I'm still confused about "The Obama Doctrine" -- if, indeed, there is one apart from poll-watching.

This has gotten to the point where it's like watching a reality TV show, about some washed up star with major life issues. The problem is I've been IN EVERY EPISODE, not watching from the outside shaking my head. Tell me Maury, is it my kid, please don't let it be my kid....DAMN it's my kid and it's gonna cost me 2 years of my life!

* * *

Let me get this straight, to help answer when I will be getting my update you kindly created a resource called "Where's my phone update" that states the update is in "Stage 1: Testing" for an undetermined amount of time, "Stage 2: Scheduling" which should be less than ten days, then onto "Stage 3: Delivering update" which might take several weeks. So let me check my math:

Undetermined number of days + Less then 10 days + several weeks = No closer to knowing when I will receive the update than before the helpful table was posted.

The only thing I get from the table is that I have 8 days left in March and that I will not be seeing the update this month. Oh wait, my bad, you never said March of what year. I bet I see the update March of 2012, what a fool I was, it is all so clear now.

* * *

This is no way to treat your customers. This is my last foray into the WP7 world and its been a couple of months now that I've been recommending the iPhone or Android. As a platform it's nice but it needs fixing. I got into the platform for its potential and not for its initial state. But it seems that it's going to stay in its intial state for too long.

Windows Phone 7 started off with a lot of positive buzz and a groundswell among developers that perhaps Microsoft was finally "getting it." Unless they regroup lickety-split, they risk burning a hell of a lot of bridges.

US officials: Libyan operation could last months

AP - U.S.-led military action in Libya has bolstered rebels fighting Moammar Gadhafi's forces, but the international operation could continue for months, the Obama administration says...

...Ahead of President Barack Obama's national address Monday to explain his decision to act against the Libyan leader, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in appearances on the Sunday talk shows that the intervention had effectively rendered Gadhafi's forces defenseless against air attacks and created the conditions for opposition advances westward.

In interviews taped Saturday, Gates and Clinton also defended the narrowly defined U.N. mandate to prevent atrocities against Libyan civilians and said the U.S. had largely accomplished its goals...

The mission, according to President Obama, is not to kill Muamar Gaddafi. Nor is it to topple his regime. Nor is it, apparently, to do anything but secure the blessing of an amorphous international collection of kooks.

Now that it's been confirmed that rebel forces include Al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood fighters, all of the operation's goals are clear. Crystal.

QOTD: "All have something to say about Palin, while most don't have a clue as to what she represents, or are incapable of critical analysis. These scornful voices emanate from those who simply do not understand what lies in the hearts and minds of people such as Sarah Palin. What many of us do understand is simply that we do not care who is President; we care who is 'Presidential.'

Sarah Palin represents what a president should be in these very troubled times; she's made choices in the last several years which many misinterpret in the framework of their own shortcoming. The slings and arrows launched at Palin vibrate with bias, chauvinism, elitism, and partisan politics and a sense of superior intellect from the howling scornful classes mentioned above.

I offer one man's simple observation -- a view from a citizen born and raised in the heartland of the rugged Great Plains: Sarah Palin has done more for the sanctity of life, for the preservation of American values, for the American traditions of integrity and honesty in political discourse than all the wannabe pundits across the country beating their chests and voicing 'expert' proclamations of disdain since the name Sarah Palin became a household word." --Michael Hauschild